Official court reporters are employed by the local, State or Federal government and work in courts. Official court reporters write verbatim what is said in court. This may include testimony, opening and closing statements, arraignments, motions, grand jury proceedings and much more.

Freelance reporters often work independently from their own home or for a freelance reporting firm. Types of reporting may include: Statements, depositions, substituting for an absent official court reporter, Arbitration, Meetings (stockholder, board of directors), and basically any "meeting" where it is necessary to have a verbatim copy of what was said. This may include "Corporate Reporters" who travel between companies and take minutes of important meetings such as mergers and acquisitions.

Closed captioning reporters write for television news and programs, sporting events and other events that require an instant script on TV screens for the hearing impaired.

Communications Access Realtime Translation (CART) reporters are somewhat new to the reporting field. Reporters who choose this career path may work at colleges, high schools or government agencies to assist the hearing-impaired. Reporters for a college or high school take verbatim notes on class lectures and attend student meetings to prepare transcripts for hearing-impaired students. Many college captioning reporters are using realtime skills with CAT software so students can read the computer screen while attending class- this allows hearing impaired students to fully participate in class.

Scopists are responsible for making corrections, deletions, and additions to transcripts produced by a reporter using a Computer Aided Transcription (CAT) system. This necessitates good English skills. Scopists must be resourceful. The job may include researching specific terminology, deciphering acronyms, completion of missing or partial terminology and dealing with a variety of fields. Many scopists work from their homes due to the ability to e-mail files. This allows scopists to find work from all over the country without leaving home!

Legislative reporters record all proceedings of legislative bodies for immediate copy to the public. This is a great job for those interested in seeing how laws are made and enacted.

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Make the career yours

There are many court reporters that exemplify "thinking outside the box." Having machine shorthand skills often allows you to set your own hours and build a business around what you enjoy. A great example of this is Jan Jenson. She loves hearing life stories and she especially loves elderly people. Therefore, although she was still a student, she decided to start her own business and surround herself with that which she enjoyed most. She now visits people in their homes and records their life story, and prepares it in booklet format with pictures. It is a wonderful gift that people can give to their loved ones.